Second Chances with St. Nick

1. Homecoming and Headaches

1

HOMECOMING AND HEADACHES

I once read that coming home for Christmas was like getting a warm hug. I only hoped my warm hug didn’t turn into a chokehold.

Were my thoughts a little dramatic? Well, yes. But returning to Pine Springs for the holidays wasn’t my plan. I’d barely visited my hometown in years. That fact alone spoke volumes.

My fingertip whitened as I pressed the familiar doorbell. A muffled call of, “Coming!” came from somewhere within the house. I pictured Mom putting down whatever decoration she was fixing on the tree and rolling her eyes at the interruption. She always decorated the tree five days out from Christmas. You could set your calendar by her, and the results were usually spectacular. As Mom would say, the Cooper family did nothing by halves.

I exhaled, my breath curling up and around the evergreen garland hung high above. The lock clunked, and the door swung open.

My mom’s perfectly made-up face greeted me, and she wore a smile as wide as Main Street. “Abigail! You made it! And only a day late.”

My gut tugged as she wrapped her arms around me, her embrace threatening to crush the wind from my body. Her grin almost blinded me despite the mention of my lateness. Mom never let a dig go unsaid. She was lucky I came at all. I sat at the airport this morning, sipping my third coffee, wrestling with my decision to spend the holidays with my family.

But then, the real reason I came home appeared from behind Mom and my heart warmed.

Cissy.

“Abbie!” my cousin squealed, doing a little happy dance in the doorway. “Now I can really get married.”

“What do you mean?” I giggled, extracting myself from Mom’s arms.

“I mean, me getting hitched wouldn’t be the same without you here.” She reached out to hug me and I breathed in the apple scent of her hair. I smiled. There were some good things in Pine Springs.

She let me go, holding me at arm’s length as if examining a new puppy or a fancy hat. “We dreamed-up my wedding years ago, remember? And, I know, I’m not marrying Justin Bieber like I planned, but who else is going to wear turquoise taffeta and keep me sane? I need you.”

I widened my eyes. “Turquoise?”

Cissy chuckled and took my arm. “I’m only kidding. Come on inside. The whole family’s here.”

Oh, joy! I picked up my bag and plastered a grin on my face. Mom closed the door behind me, giving me a tight smile. The second I pulled up in the narrow hallway, she overtook me and ran her eyes over my face. Next, she gave me a head-to-toe-and-back-again inspection. “I’m glad to see you’re eating well.”

My face burned. What… the… actual? So I’d put on a few pounds since the split from my ex. I liked my new curves. A sour taste pooled in my throat. Cody would have had something to say about them, too. Not having to listen to his criticism any more suited me just fine. I’d declared myself a “Cody free zone,” physically and emotionally. I’d forgotten how similar he and my mother could be.

I ran a hand along my thick braid, pulling off my winter hat.

A line appeared between Mom’s brows. “You look good, but have you been getting enough sleep? You know, eye bags run in the family, right?”

I let out a sigh. Never a back-handed compliment free moment in the Cooper house. I spent most of my life being subjected to Mom’s opinions and judgements. After years of criticism, I developed armor plating. Maybe it was time to shine it up.

With a sigh, I put my bag down on the floral rug. Cissy’s fingers curled around mine. She turned to Mom. “Aunt Meg! That’s just plain mean.” My cousin turned to face me, a glow in her eyes. “You don’t have eye bags. But if you did, I’d hope you had fun earning them. Now that you’re single again, I can only imagine the hell you must be raising in California.”

I smiled and pulled in the aroma of freshly baked something emanating from the kitchen. “Let’s go say hi to everyone.”

After countless hugs from my gorgeous dad and a quick chat with Cissy’s parents about Christmas sweaters, she and I snuck into the kitchen. She busied herself with plating cookies, and I busied myself eating the M&M’s Mom had baked into their tops.

Cissy sighed. “Don’t look so sad. Your mom has always been a tough crowd. I guess it’s her way of showing she cares?”

I gave a wry chuckle, tipping three blue-colored candies into my mouth. “You think?”

Maybe I was being harsh, but based on experience, I had a feeling that eye bags and extra curves were only the start of her onslaught.

Cissy grimaced, and I pushed up to sit on the shiny countertop with a smirk. Mom always hated when I did that. “I know she means well, but I won’t lie. Living away from her has been blissful.”

“Is that why you never visit? I haven’t seen you in person for ages. Not since I stayed with you. What was it? Two years ago?”

My gut pulled. Sure, my mom was one reason I rarely came to Pine Springs, but how could I tell Cissy the other? All the feelings that’d kept me away for so long.

I turned to my cousin. Her head was tipped to one side as if I was about to drop some philosophical bombshell or, at the very least, a declaration on gingerbread’s rightful place as a food group.

“Let’s just say I have my reasons not to visit. But I’m glad I’m here now. I couldn’t let you be the only one wearing taffeta at Christmas. Tell me, does your wedding dress look like a puffball?”

She grinned. “You know me too well. It’d give Marie Antoinette a run for her money.” Cissy leaned in and picked a green M&M off the nearest cookie, popping it into her mouth. “I consider myself lucky that I’m important enough to lure you back home. And you never know, you could end up meeting someone wonderful at the wedding.” Cissy wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Harry’s been singing your praises to all his single friends.”

Harry, her husband to be, was a nice guy, but I’d only met him once outside of mine and Cissy’s weekly Zoom calls. I wasn’t sure I should hand myself over to the bachelors of Pine Springs based on his say-so. Romance, even a quick fling, ranked at the very bottom of my list of priorities.

“I think I’ll give them a miss.”

Cissy rolled her eyes as if she was dealing with a tricky toddler. “Well, that’s a shame. I’m sure there’s more than a few eligible young men eager to ‘make your acquaintance.’” She threw air quotes around the words and followed them with another grin. “I’d venture to say, the men of Pine Springs have missed you. You weren’t voted homecoming queen for nothing.”

I smiled and shook my head. Cissy was adorable.

“I’m not kidding,” she said. “I’ll bet Nick missed you. I’ve seen him around town a ton recently. You guys can’t have talked in ages.”

My stomach plummeted at the mention of his name. I reached to touch the small charm hanging around my neck on a gold chain. Nick’s charm. The one he’d given me when I turned sixteen. As I pressed the small musical note to my chest, the skin on my palm prickled. Cissy didn’t know the truth about what happened between me and Nick.

Of course, she knew that Nick and I were once best friends. How we were inseparable growing up. But she didn’t know how our friendship changed and then ended. How I messed up any chance we had to be together.

Cissy had been young. She always just accepted that Nick and I were like two parts of the same whole. “Go one—go both,” he’d say. And we stuck to our motto, right until we left senior high. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about him, though. I hadn’t said his name out loud to another person in ten long years. “He never moved back to town after I left?”

Cissy shook her head, and my belly rolled.

There’d been a time when I knew Nick like I knew myself.

After what I'd done, he ran for the hills, and I never got the chance to explain how wrong I'd been the night I let him down.

“I always wondered what happened between the two of you. I thought you’d get married and have a billion kids.”

In my girlhood dreams, I thought so too. But then, when he’d finally had the courage to admit how he felt about me, I’d run over his heart with a bulldozer.

“Hey, earth to Abbie!” Cissy’s sing-song voice cut into my thoughts.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“Only that I think your bridesmaid dress is going to knock everyone dead at the wedding. Maybe even Nick.”

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me it’s a loud color. I don’t want to stand out…” I pulled up short, processing her words. “Wait, what? Nick is coming to your wedding? You invited him?”

Cissy shrugged and moved to the sink to run herself a glass of water. “Well, my mom did. She ran into him and asked.”

Blood sang in my ears, and I bunched my fingers to stop them from trembling. “What did he say? Does he know I’m in town?”

“I’m not sure, but he knows we’re close, so I guess he’d figure out you’re coming.” She grinned at me like a proud mother hen. “He’ll be glad to see you, and like I say, your dress is gorgeous. Slinky, even. You’ll probably outshine me.”

I slowly let out a breath. The dress was the least of my worries.

If I’d come back to Pine Springs thinking I could avoid my past, I was sorely mistaken.

And Nick? Nick and the way I’d left our friendship was a mistake I couldn’t forget.